Rick Perry Takes ‘Uproot’ Plan On The Road

Jim Cole/AP Photo

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Texas Governor Rick Perry took his “Uproot and Overhaul Washington” plan on the road today, spending the majority of his first town hall in New Hampshire touting his new plan which will reform government to better suit the people.

“We the people are not the subjects of government. Government should be the subject to the people,” Perry said in a townhall at Granite State Manufacturing.

Perry repeated his plan to organize a part-time citizen Congress, institute term limits for federal judges and upend the bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.

The GOP candidate criticized the Washington power structure.

“I’m reminded of what one of your citizens of New Hampshire, Granite Stater by the name of P.J. O’Rourke once said: ‘Giving money and power to government is like giving teenagers whiskey and car keys.’ This election the American people, they want the car keys back,” Perry said.

Perry acknowledged that his new plan might be criticized by some in the nation’s capital, but he argued his intention isn’t to please the establishment.

“My wife and my family and pretty much I think the dogs love me,” Perry said. “I’m not going to Washington D.C. to make any friends. I’m going to Washington D.C. to make a difference. I love this country.”

In a new Bloomberg poll of likely New Hampshire primary voters released today, Perry received only three percent of support in the Granite State, ahead of only Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, while Romney led the pack with 40 percent and Ron Paul came in second place with 17 percent. Perry, who is the lone candidate who has not sought office in Washington, DC. before, hopes his outsider status will influence voters to support him.

“I’m the outsider who’s willing to step on some toes. I want to force Congress to balance the budget, and if they don’t, I say cut their pay and send them home,” Perry said.

Perry is on his seventh trip to New Hampshire today, just one trip less than he’s made to Iowa and one more time than he’s visited South Carolina. Despite his concentration in early primary states, the Perry campaign continues to insist they are running a “national campaign” that will take the governor to all states.